Report: Wii U Cracked Open, System Memory and Speed Revealed

Nintendo, like many hardware manufacturers, was cagey about the final specs for the Wii U, choosing not to reveal the system's overall memory prior to release.

Now that the Wii U is out, though, it hasn't taken long for someone to tear one apart and do the detective work themselves

[FinalomegaS]

i knew this was going to happen really fast lol

360: 22.4 GB/s + eDRAM for framebuffer
PS3: 25.6 GB/s main memory BW + 22.4 GB/s graphics memory BW, no eDRAM

GTX 680: 192.2 GB/s

----------

I can see we are going to get bits and pieces of data about the internal specs, it still won't be 100% accurate...

[Sarcasm]

Memory speed is only one aspect of a system though. It also depends how developers will code around it. But at LEAST it has 2GB which is decent.

[AsimLeonheart]

LOL! The graphics of this supposedly "next-gen" console are worse than current gen consoles. Slowly the reality about Wii U is being revealed. We now know that WiiU RAM is slower than 6/7 year old PS360. The 5GB firmware update is bricking consoles. Soon the underpowered CPU and GPU will be revealed as well. Nintendo was hiding the specs and details for this very reason. They were tricking the Nintendo fans into buying this crappy, underpowered and last-gen console.

[RumbleFish]

Anybody who considers this next gen has been playing wii for the last years.

[dazbobaby]

@AsimLeonheart
Nintendo aren't in an arms race with Microsoft and Sony, so it doesn't really matter how it looks on screen, just as long as the family fun factor is there.

[dirthurts]

Ram speed, especially no video ram speed, has almost no discernible impact on graphics quality. I've tested everything from 800mhz-1800mhz and I see a few frames here and there difference.
Not a performance issue here.
More ram also has little to do with graphics quality past around 1-2gb. Unless you're talking video ram.

[Yodagamer]

@asimleonheart most modern CPUs have a slower CPU speed but they can do more than 6 year old CPUs with a higher clock rate its just how tech works

[Beastforlifenoob]

@sarcasm
Decent my A**, my 2 year old PC has 16GB of ram... And a 7 YEAR old system has nearly the same as the WII U- This is not nextgen tech, its not next gen console tech and its nothing amazing in the hardware world.

[T900]

@beastforlifenoob

Whats funny is my 3 year laptop featuring a 5870M has better specs than the Wii U lol.

5870M comes with 70GB/s bandwidth.

Hell a 5 year old PC GPU like 8800GTX came with 90GB/s bandwidth. Technically Nintendo is still behind a 8800GTX lol.

I find it funny people are actually willing to pay 300usd for such old tech. Spend 200usd more and for 500usd you could build a PC with much great specs.

A 500usd PC could easily be fitted with a GPU that could pump 150gb/s memory bandwidth. Its almost embarrassing what console makers are charging people. Consoles are supposed to be cheap and cost effective, yet it looks the other way around now. With consoles coming with gimped specs, charging more per game and offering no BC to the previous models.

PC gaming looks amazing.

Edit:

Heres what a 500usd PC would have gotten u in August: http://www.tomshardware.com...

The GPU on this one pushes 130GB/s dont think even the next Playstation or Xbox will be featuring those numbers.

[Beastforlifenoob]

@t900i agree, console makers should reduce their price, the only thing that should increase thebprice is the operating system, otherwise I dont see why the price has to be so OP...

[Optical_Matrix]

Oh please. RAM thats 43% slower than current generation consoles is not acceptable in 2012. This is going to act as a huge bottleneck against the gpu. A terrible memory bandwidth is only going to choke a GPU no matter how good/efficient it is. It's going to end up being a case of developers needing to dedicate even more time to learning a new architecture to port to with their games and, if the Wii U doesn't establish a market big enough to justify that it just won't get the big AAA games aside from maybe Activision and EA's stuff.

It's pretty telling that the biggest games of next year such as MGS: Ground Zeroes, Tomb Raider and GTAV won't see the light of day on the Wii U for the foreseeable future. I don't feel as though many publishers are that bothered about the system

Shame on Nintendo for being so lazy with how they put the hardware together. I hoped this thing would succeed, and I'll sure as hell be buying mine next week when it launches in Europe but damn, between these hardware revelations and the 2004 level online service, Nintendo has shown their ineptitude to embrace what the industry has grown into technology wise since 2005 is aggravating.

[AsimLeonheart]

BREAKING NEWS!
Neogaf updated the post after ACTUAL test results. The 17GB/s BUS speed was a guess based on the nature and manufacturer of the RAM.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

Nintendo fans will be glad to hear that it is not 17GB/s. It is actually...
.
.
.
.
.

ONLY 12GB/s!!!! LOL!!!!

[bozebo]

It does seem a little underpowered on paper, but I think it will be extremely easy to develop for due to the RAM quantity (compared to ps3 and 360, also Sony and MS take a very hard line towards developers) so if enough sell, a lot of small-medium developers will be attracted meaning there could be some incredible games.

One of the chips on the substrate (the tiny one) is probably a specialized eDRAM or similar memory chip which will be able to perform ~instant calculations on sets of data (the 360 can do this too) which when used correctly can take a lot of vector processing work away from the graphics chip, it is probably also incredibly fast too for use storing the framebuffer during deferred rendering (again, like the 360). Using that chip correctly probably takes a lot of smart engine design, so don't expect much in the early days. In fact the architecture seems like a refined version of the 360's, it can probably do AA far faster among other things as the graphical feature set is newer (and more efficient).

Also, memory bandwidth doesn't correlate directly to better performance - don't get hung up on it being slower than the 360 and PS3's. Is it shared or is that just main memory? Only graphical memory needs to be extremely fast (lots of PCs capable of maxing games out have RAM which is far slower than the consoles).
edit: might have my sources for the memory mixed up, what does it have 16BG of 1066MHz main memory and 2GB of vMEM? I'm confused!

Give it some time and there will be some games that show off a lot more than anything that'll run on the PS3 or 360 (not just graphically, a lot of things are impossible with only 512MB of RAM). It should survive well into the next gen but it won't compete with Sony and MS's offerings (of course, and this was never Nintendo's intention)

The bottleneck as far as on-screen graphics quality goes will be down to fragment shader performance, just like PS3, 360 and PC. Simply due to the fact it is 2012, the shaders should be a lot more capable than the PS3 and 360.

[SolidStoner]

2 Gb nowdays is nothing, putting that small amount is a big mistake.. and shortens life cycle!

EDIT: I just hope real next generation will provide us bigger leap forward than this!

[aquamala]

good to know GTX 680 is 8 times faster than current gen consoles lol

[hellvaguy]

"good to know GTX 680 is 8 times faster than current gen consoles lol "

680 cards are about $500 alone with zero other components. Horrible comparison, even for a hardcore pc fanboy to use. Must be an act of desperation to grasp at such straws.

[T900]

@hellvaguy

High end GPUs have diminishing returns on increasing performance. However if you took a 150usd GPU of today even that will be doing about 130-150GB/s

Which is still 5-7 times ahead of current consoles. Id say it still makes consoles look pretty bad.

[bozebo]

Actually it's a lot more than 8 times as powerful, the memory is 8 times as fast but the shader performance scales way beyond that.

[lfclee]

xb360 and ps3
360: 22.4 GB/s + eDRAM for framebuffer
360: 22.4 GB/s + eDRAM for framebuffer

Your tripping @ FinalomegaS

[BitbyDeath]

You realise you copied the 360 line twice?

[xflo360]

@asimleonheart - graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics graphics.... why is it that all u people care about is graphics? dispite the current gen being graphicly superior to past gens, litterally not a single game from this gen would be in my top games of all time list. graphics dont mean s@#*!!

[AsimLeonheart]

I absolutely agree with you that graphics do not matter. I myself play several PSone games and have a large PSN classics on my PS3. Hell, I even play Captain Tsubasa on a NES emulator sometimes. I am an old gamer and I haev seen graphics evolving from 2d pixels to sprawling 3D worlds.
It is the Nintendo fans who started the specs war even though WiiU was clearly underpowered. But they were hoping against hope. I just did not like their attitude and wanted them to see and accept reality.

[beerkeg]

'It is the Nintendo fans who started the specs war'

The Specs War is the war to end all wars. It's the big one, it's gonna be apocalyptic.

Not many people are going to walk away from this one, this is bigger than World War 2. This is the real deal.

I can only hope and pray that I can get me and my family through this alive.

God help us all.

[meetajhu]

PC gaming is the best and will always remain the best!

[wishingW3L]

Wii U Ram is slower than current gen consoles. And so it begins... We already know its CPU is weaker than PS3 and Xbox's too, now the question is, how good is its GPU? Because it'll need to be pretty powerful to make up for all these downfalls. =/

[decrypt]

Lol learn how hardware works. If memory bandwidth is bad it will cripple even the best gpu out there. There is no point matching a powerful GPU with a weak ass memory system. It would only be a waste of resources.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

so your saying that since wiiU has even less bandwidth than ps3/360 the gpu is bound to be unimpressive?

That's what I got from what you said.

I hope ninty doesn't drag down ps4 & xbox 720.

I don't know If wiiU could have this type of graphics.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Da One]

@decrypt

True, very true. Hopefully nintendo can pull of something that makes my jaw drop....hopefully

[ProjectVulcan]

It is possible that Wii U lacks a great deal of main memory bandwidth because the edram actually on the same die as the GPU will offer pretty huge ass bandwidth to operate inside (probably 250+GB/s), and there is 32mb of it, plenty for an entire anti aliased framebuffer.

Nintendo would know that they could get away with cheapo DDR3 memory. It wouldn't be mind blowing but then it is quickly becoming apparent Wii U is not at all significantly faster than 360 and PS3.

I am sure it will still turn out somewhat faster than them, but not so much that it has enough raw performance to easily beat them without very good programming.

[Gamer1982]

Slower memory is more import factor then more ram purely because extra ram is helpful for the OS etc but for game because of how consoles are built memory speed is a more important benefactor. However thanks to the controller they could take some of the games features from the actual game and transfer them to the controller to help with the load I guess.

This does mean however the 360 and PS3 is more powerful than WiiU in real terms. Let me put it like this whats the point of being able to fill that extra space if you do it slower than your rivals? The speed bottlenecks the RAM for gaming in a sense and thus is the reason why we are seeing inferior versions of WiiU launch titles when it comes to multi-platform games. Of course you could offset this with longer loading times etc.. But we all know that wouldn't go down well and is seen as papering over the cracks.

[bozebo]

Nope. The eDRAM chip will be insanely fast, they can stick textures for rendering a range of models in there, render the models, then slowly pull a new texture in from the slow RAM and use it in the super fast eDRAM chip again (probably has enough space for a few high res textures as well as a few frame-buffers for deferred rendering).

The graphical bottlenecks on current consoles are mostly in the shaders, but also in RAM quantity. I have no doubts that the shaders in the wii-u are vastly faster than the 360's simply because of tech improving (PS3's shaders are not so good, so programmers have to do a lot of things on the SPUs).

People are right to recognize that the slow memory could be an issue, but it really isn't - instancing and deferred rendering make great use of the eDRAM so textures are not loaded from the slow memory too often. On PC, if you have slow vide memory then it will certainly be a bottleneck - because there are no quirks such as eDRAM.

[cannon8800]

massive bottleneck anyone?

[3-4-5]

current Gen has 512 MB of RAM

Wii U = 2 GB

How is that less ?

[GraveLord]

It doesn't have less RAM, it has slower RAM. There is a difference kid. Read all the comments above yours, it pretty much explains why a next-gen consoles which has slower RAM speeds, is a huge negative.

[caseh]

I'm no expert on current gen consoles but slow memory, even in abundance isn't a good thing.

The NES got around the shortage of memory using bank switching which is what im guessing the xbox/ps3 used a variant of. Just swapping things that the game needed in/out of memory as and when it was required.

I wouldn't write the Wii U off just yet though, no dev has drawn the capabilities from a console in its first month, even its first year would be a push.

[DeadlyFire]

It is early speculation that this is not Dual channel memory. If its dual channel then its a plus and actually faster than X360/PS3 memory, but not by leaps and bounds. So many come to downsize the WiiU as soon as it hits the gates.

[Schawk]

Would be nice if we started to see some physical evidence from these articles

[ronin4life]

At the end, they recommend caution in taking these findings too seriously instead of flipping out or something...

Is this really kotaku?
O.o;

[edward3222]

I am waiting for it very nice

[NewsForSnowflakes]

Okay Borat.

[Question_Mark]

Sorry, but I can never take kotaku seriously, no matter what the story is. At the end, it even says not to take these findings as gospel, since it was done by a third party. I'll wait until a more reputable site reviews the inner hardware.

[torchic]

but they're just reporting on what another website reported? :/

Kotaku is a douchebag site but they aren't doing much wrong here.

[Question_Mark]

They're actually just reporting on what a single user on a forum said.

The site that did the actual teardown is here: http://www.pcper.com/review... Kotaku sourced the website.
It basically just shows what the inside looks like. They didn't actually test anything.

The forum user, AlStrong, made an assumption based on partial information. Opening up the console and reading a line on the memory does not give enough information to make an estimation. That's why I'll wait until actual testing is done.

[Thepcz]

well whatever the case, devs are managing to put out superior versions of multi-platform games. ie fifa is already confirmed to be visually superior to ps3/360 versions.

so if the wiiu hardware is so 'shit' how come devs are able to produce better results on wiiu on release date?

i smell shit. and its coming from the mouths of the people who wrote these articles.

in any case, it is quite apparent the wiiu isn't a massive leap in graphical capability.. i hope a price drop comes soon. black premium wiiu, 250pounds. then i will buy.

but 300 for a console with graphics tech 'comparable' to tech that came out half a decade ago... thats taking the piss!

If games will suffer graphically on wiiu, i think it will be due to the controller. ie, the extra processing power and resources it take on the computer. I can quite easily see the controller becoming a hindrance for wiiu.

I mean, just imagine how much smoother a game would run, and how much more detail could be put into graphics, if the game wasn't being rendered essentially twice. Remember split screen gaming on consoles, and how much graphical quality was lost in split screen in comparison to single player? Maybe wiiu will suffer similarly.

[Schawk]

Here is a video of the teardown, dosent mention anything about speeds tho

http://www.twitch.tv/pcper/...

[XboxInnovation]

I know people like to look at specs but I've seen two Wii u ports (batman, fifa) up close and I saw no difference than current consoles. In fact the lighting and color on Wii u seemed more rich.

I don't think the Wii u is much more powerful than current consoles, but if it can port games that look just as good if not better in its early stages games will only continue to look better.

If I had to guess I'd say the wiiu is like an xbox360 on creatine

[noorbert]

Nintendo, what a f*cking joke. Somehow they managed to put out dated hardware to 7 years old consoles. Even if Wii U will have great games in future, its still bad joke.

[Ritsujun]

Well said.

[Cyb3r]

I was wondering why Nintendo only revealed the ram amount (2GB) at Nintendo Direct but didnt get specific on the speed but what becomes more apparent is why they havent revealed the GPU and CPU specs either. It was quite crafty to do this before people preordered their consoles. I just hope that it is more powerful than current gen when someone reveals the GPU and CPU

[chronoforce]

its because most people who brought wii consoles have no idea how the specs on a console translate into games unless your a software or hardware engineer or just in the know. How does it benefit an ordinary person to know hardware specs. People talk about Specs as if they are going to start developing games for the wii U, the only people specs matter to are the people who need to use it.

[Megaton]

Well, it's hardly surprising. Roughly 1/3 - 1/2 of what you're paying for a Wii U covers the controller. Doesn't leave a lot of money left to make a beefy console and still make a profit. Didn't think it would be worse than current gen, though.

[cee773]

http://www.aliexpress.com/i...

this link contains a full blown 7inch tablet with a 5 point multitouch ips screen 100x600 res that puts wii u's vga 480p screen to shame bear with me it also contains 1gb og ddr3 (same class as wii U), dual core soc with quad core mali, 16gb flash, front camera, hdmi, sd card slot, 3700mah battery sell all for less than 100$ so imagine how much it is to manufacture these tablets under 65-75$ in bulk maybe lower

the only thing wii u gampad has is a vga screen, bluetooth, small battery etc. when you go toe to toe and compare the gamepad with the similar components of the tablet (forget the ram soc, sd card slot, flash etc) compare the screen and battery, camera you will see the gamepad is not as expensive as nintendo want us to believe I gurantee theres huge markups on the wii u gamepad

[sitharrefus]

Why cant we just be happy with it? We knew that it wasnt going to get all high specs, at least its decent but yes the PS4 and 360 will blow the WiiU......

[noorbert]

Noone's telling you not be happy with it. Go and take it on boat trip if you like. I for one, am concerned in what state industry is, if people are happy about buying new console which is worse piece of hardware than last gen hardware. Console is after only hardware and nothing more, and it is supposed to allow developers to do whatever they want or at least try and expand possibilites with each new hardware and Nintendo failed at this completely.

[sitharrefus]

But your forgetting that Nintendo asked developers what they wanted for specs and they were pleased with the WiiU and they showed that at E3. Personally i am a bit disappointed and i agree with you of being concerned in the state of the industry. But i believe it all comes down to user choice and having 3 different choices to buy a system its better than having 1.

[noorbert]

@sitharrefus

Definitely, i just wonder if Wii U will be succesful with this strategy, then Sony and MS will adopt this strategy and we can give farewell to gaming as you know it, since Nintendo isnt going for anything else but shovelware and causals. But as long as its only Nintendo i dont care. But honestly its first Nintendo console i am super non-interested in.

[gerbintosh]

@sitharrefus

Why wouldn't the developers not be happy with tech that was not leaps and bounds over the last gen?

1. Less learning curve, check.
2. Less cost in developing, check.
3. Being able to port games easier, check.

Developers were happy to have the Wii U at current specs because it would be less cost on their bottom line, period. SO yeah, less impressive specs equals a happier developer who can just take their 360/PS3 knowledge and port it to Wii U with little cost associated.

So the fact that developers were pleased with the system does not hold water with me.

[V0LT]

I lol at everyone thinking the next consoles are going to be leaps and bounds better graphically. It just simply isn't going to happen for the price range everyone would like. Wii U will hold its own just fine.

[Imalwaysright]

It doesnt have to be leaps and bounds better, It just has to be noticeably better. If not what is the point in upgrading? I didnt expect a revolution but i did expect the WiiU to at least be able to outperform both the PS3 and 360 right out of the box.

[Qrphe]

Have you missed the engine demos by SE and EG?

Yes, do expect way better-looking Wii U games that will show how it's more powerful than the PS360, but that's about it.

[sway_z]

Yes the Wii U is a disappointment IMO...but then I gave up on Nintendo after the Gamecube.

The 2nd screen doesn't have to be utilized...they can make games that use it as just a controller (obviously), so don't worry about losing resources on 2nd screen rendering.

I hope Nintendo fans get everything they want out of Wii U, and i'm sure the fans get Nintendo products for Nintendo's own 1st party games.

As for the rest of us....?

I fear only Nintendo will provide the gaming goodness...and the 3rd Party developers will (eventually) flock to whatever Sony or MS bring to the table....

Does not this all feel very familiar? ....Wii have been here before!

YES! >Pun intended

[PirateThom]

You know the worst thing about the system?

It's marginally better but also has to stream to that screen, that takes processes away from the main display.

Result?

Marginally better graphics than we currently have. Why are people accepting this? This is the same company that said people don't want HD.

[TripC50]

I want great games.

[Cyb3r]

I want great games that look great

[chronoforce]

all of the best selling games this gen where low tech and in standard def. That alone proves they had every reason to believe people didn't want HD, it may have been stupid but it was true. People didn't buy HD TV's because of consoles though it helped,its because they became cheaper and were better. HD tech is cheaper than it was 7 years ago from Nintendo's point of view its the perfect time to release a HD console, even though Nintendo is selling at a loss I doubt its as much as Sony's or Microsoft's. Lots of people will buy the WiiU and soon they will be rolling in profits again. such is life.

[TheTwelve]

Uncharted 2 says hi

[SegataShanshiro]

Wii U is current gent....Xbox 360 and ps3 are last gen

[Kennytaur]

Gran Turismo 5 sends it's regards too.

[profgerbik]

I agree but for me it's gotten to a point where Nintendo could have stepped it up by now, they are the richest gaming division in the world but their systems just barely breeze by every time in terms of hardware. Which doesn't make any sense to me that companies losing money can put out better hardware than Nintendo.

I honestly still have yet to see these improvements in graphics, the only comparisons anyone makes are with redeveloped ports. Of course those ports are going to look better on the Wii U, than older ones on the PS3 and 360.

That is common sense.

I will see the real proof when PS3, 360 and Wii U all the get a game at the same time, then people can start comparing them which hasn't really happened.

You cannot compare newer redeveloped ports to that of older ones, that had plenty of time to make a lot of changes from the last. It just isn't enough for me to believe this system is that much more powerful or even graphically.

So as of yet their truly hasn't been any proof to actually say the system does indeed have better graphics.

Also any systems true power comes from it's processor, always.. which we still know very little about. If I know Nintendo or hell even IBM.. it won't be pretty but who knows.. I am just basing it off history and Nintendo seems to repeat theirs a lot.

[givemeshelter]

Nintendo's business model is one that has hardware making a profit from the beginning and keeping margins above board.
So to do this either you create a system that has close to cutting edge specs and charge a high retail price or you create a system that has below average specifications based on current technology and sell it for market prices.
Nintendo does the latter.
You wont see too much of a difference in graphical looks from the WiiU over the Xbox360 or PS3.
You will see better frame rates and a few more graphical effects. However nothing mind blowing.
Once again however, $600+ PC's will still look better.
This is where I am disappointed in Nintendo. I expected a little bit more from them.

[TemplarDante]

Happy BIRTHDAY Mr Miyamoto :)
We opened up your new baby and saw its current/last gen tech!
Your wish didnt come true :(

lol

[DJ]

Looks like it's almost as powerful as PS3 and 360, but does offer more RAM to work with. It continue's Nintendo's strategy of selling hardware at a profit, so in the end it still works out. The only problem I see is Microsoft and Sony teaming up on Nintendo when Durango and Orbis are released with significantly greater specs.

The Wii sold a lot of units, but most of those units are collecting dust for a reason. And I doubt people would invest in a Wii U after that initial experience.

[VverdugovV]

Wow I wasn't expecting this. Also no GTA V for Wii U is a huge dissapointment. Looks like I'll pass on this system.

[millzy102]

obviously you have a different system because if your intrested in 5 you've played 4 and the all the previous ones so what's wrong with owning two systems.

[josephayal]

Def a high end machine

[chukamachine]

Wtf is the article going on about, that speed.

360: 22.4 GB/s + eDRAM for framebuffer
PS3: 25.6 GB/s main memory BW + 22.4 GB/s graphics memory BW, no eDRAM

I don't think the wii u is 17gb/s

I think it's more in the region of 28-30gb/s.

As I said before, You'll see more 720p games run at 720p and smooth, Probably some better shadows/textures. But won't be massive difference from ps3/360.

[gerbintosh]

The Wii U is a graphical leap in terms of the Wii. Not as great a leap on the 360/PS3 as they stated. I wonder what they are going to do when, in preparation for the next gen, the 360/PS3 drop to $99 next year. I don't think a touch screen controller will justify a $230 markup in some people minds.

[Kennytaur]

Do not underestimate the power of Nintendos brand recognition. Just that one word written on the box will sell it.

[Nodoze]

I think everyone is forgetting that this is Nintendo. It is not like this is the first time they have done this. This is what they ALWAYS do! Nintendo is not, and never will be cutting edge from a hardware perspective. They are all about gameplay and great original software. I am excited at the prospect of FINALLY seeing some HD Mario and Zelda. Super Mario Galaxy 3 HD YES PLEASE> Zelda HD YES PLEASE.

For all the naysayers out there look to the portable space. The Vita is leaps and bounds more powerful than the 3DS, yet it is getting smoked at retail. It is ALL about the software, and quite honestly Nintendo has NEVER let us down there.

Will it be as successful as Wii, no, but it will be fun.

[shackdaddy]

What? This is not what they always do. They only decided to go lower end specs with the wii after the gamecube didn't sell too well....

[millzy102]

agree mostly but n64 more powerful then Saturn and psx, snes more powerful then genedis/megadrive, GameCube more powerful then ps2 and dreamcast, they have produced cutting edge tech also gba most advance portable at the time and de started touch screen gaming.

[Ritsujun]

Didn't you know that casual gaming handheld/non-handheld consoles sell like hotcakes?
e.g. Mobile gaming

[Qrphe]

Does anyone know the source to the actual... well... source?

[aquamala]

the source is "User AlStrong on the Beyond 3D forums" lol

[prototypeknuckles]

Lmao, man those hackers are fast.

[MasterCornholio]

I was expecting better but the most important thing about the Wii U is the controller and the only thing that is wrong with it is the resistive touch screen. Nintendo in my opinion should have gone with a capacitive one.

[Quetzll]

Resistive touchscreens are more accurate, since you can use a stylus or something similar. With a capacitive, you pretty much HAVE to use your fingers. Also, newer resistive touchscreens have a wider sensitivity range. Which helps with drawing tools and other stuff we all saw on the original wiiU reveal.

A resistive is more "hardcore" for lack of a better term.

[DeadPixel]

I was never expecting it to be leaps ahead of current gen, i'll be happy if it matches or is slighty better. The main reason i will be buying it because i want something different in terms of how i play games, kinect is a massive joke to me and in terms of gimmicks it tops the lot, so i'm looking forward to see how devs will utilise the pad.

[Cyb3r]

The 2 guys on twitch.tv were anxious to know what the GPU and CPU specs were but they were too scared to take them apart because they might damage them. Why cant Nintendo just tell us the full specs instead of leaving with no other option but to take apart the console ourselves.

[dee-ecks]

Wow, cracked in less than a week. Damn that was quick!!

[dee-ecks]

A disagree? Whats there to disagree about?

[ambientFLIER]

You mean opened? lol

[Skynetone]

I update my ram and gpu all the time with windows update, after the wiiu gets a update are two, it will easily outperform the gtx 680

[Qrphe]

> it will easily outperform the gtx 680

Seriously?

[ashcroft]

You cannot update ram and gpu via updates, those are called dtivers to allow the 3D acceleration and fix any bugs.

There are no updates or any update than can magically update the gpu to that or greater of a gtx 680. This is like going back to the late 90's and asking people where to download ram.

Another example of how stupid you sound. I'll update my ps3's firmware so I can make it into a ps4.

[MrAnderson]

That was quite possibly the dumbest thing i've ever heard anyone say ever, yes, your puny little $200 console that cannot even run 60 FPS/1080p (something that even 5 year old PC's can do on better looking games) will be more powerful than the top single PC GPU on the market that is currently $600-$800.

There is no facepalm big enough for your moronicy.

[lfclee]

Wait a minute we don't know which way the wii u uses the eDRAM so don't go jumping too conclusions it could have a dual channel channel memory controller.

We know the wii u card is about 8 times more powerful than current gen so whats the big deal?

[FinalomegaS]

this is N4G and we have this things about jumping all over shit.

[cyhm3112]

"We know the wii u card is about 8 times more powerful than current gen" hahaha, keep dreaming bros!!

[FinalomegaS]

so you expect nintendo to somehow magically pull a legacy piece of hardware out of extinction to put in a 2012 hardware?

Tell me, you must be watching these websites that are opening the wiiu, no one can tell the actual GPGPU but only the main stuff that we already know.They can't just open the unit and google the codes they see on the chip... I have been looking at the videos also.

If you have additional details that we are lacking then by all means please share with the rest of us.

thanks.

[cyhm3112]

I told you guys,stupid,hahaha,GPU and CPU are also weaker, some of those who have preorder are crying right now

[cyhm3112]

There are a lot of morons here, really amazes me.

[kewlkat007]

Do you really think people that buy Nintendo are that concerned about specs?

Come on guys....think about it

The Wii wasn't even on par with the 360/PS3 why should we be that surprised...unless this is just a pissin contest..

Compare NDS vs the PSVita..same results.

For Nintendo at the end of the day the Graphics is not what the bottom line(sales + profits) is relied upon.

[tubers]

Shh... It's all about the hardware not the "experience of the whole package"..

Shh.. Nintendo hasn't proven their themselves with the weakest hardware amongst its direct competitions..

Shh..

[Amiroo]

@kewlkat007
you may right but nintendo fans started spec wars as i saw,don't get me wrong, i like nintendo but they are who to blame to started this spec wars by saying WiiU is more powerfull, twice powerfull, 4 or 5 time more powerfull and etc etc....

[BitbyDeath]

Hopefully this isn't true.
I'm sure Digital Foundry will crack it open soon, best to wait for their analysis.

[sak500]

It's ok even if it's the next gen it's still a toyota yaris Only kiddies/family want that car. For us core gamers lets hope the actual next gen consoles come from MS and Sony.

[Droid Control]

Weak Source

[monkeyfox]

The "reaction" to these articles (not the articles themselves) bore the f£$% out of me. Who gives a crap if its under powered/over powered whatever... If developers use it right, they can create beautiful games (for us all to play...) end of £$%^%$g story

[Holeran]

It has been proven many times that the amount of ram is far more important than the speed of the ram. So 2GB of slow ram is far better than 512MB of fast ram.

[tubers]

Yeah on most average cases.. at least for PC

4 GB 1066 Mhz > 2 GB 1866 Mhz

Then again we aren't talking about VRAM yet.

[Tei777]

Pssst, all these numbers are'nt even worth unwrangling. The Wii U will produce graphics marginally better then current systems that is all Y'all need to know.

[jayman1]

-Silver-

12 hours ago

Well, at least Sony and MS are probably sticking to current HD resolutions instead of jumping to 4k, so the Wii U won't be QUITE as obsolete in the next gen compared to how the Wii is in this gen. I still have my doubts as to how many third part games will be able to run on it though.

Probably going to be a repeat of this gen in that regard: excellent first party games, but none of the main third party games due to inferior hardware.

(Response)
Sony is jumping to 4k with PS4 why are they introducing a 25000 4K tv's now? Sony repeats itself look at there history. Bringing in blue ray (only company to attempt this in gaming). They pushed out the 1080 tv's and 3d tech. They will be introduce a 4k system compatalble with 4k tv''s sony pushes tech.

[millzy102]

read the link anough said.

[mdkgod43]

im going to cancel my newegg order, this is crazy old tech huh nintendo u are so next gen smh

[jacksheen0000]

Guys,

According to this article the Wii U is slower than six year old PS3; but what everyone fail to realize is that the Wii U console has a faster optical drive than PS3/360.

OK Lets do the math here:

360 disc reading times are 15.85 MB/s. at max + 512 MB of RAM

PS3′s Blu Ray drive reads at 9MB/s + 256MB XDR Main RAM,256MB GDDR3 VRAM

Wii U drive reads at 22.5MB/s + 2GB of Ram

[Rageanitus]

the speed of the drive will not have much impact of whats outputed on he screen....

[jacksheen0000]

Ok you're right!

But Personally, I think Nintendo wii U gaming console is not design to output high polygon on screen like the PS3/360.

That said, I think Nintendo is going to rely on using high quality texture wrapped around object that has less polygon to achieve to same visually impressive graphic we all experienced last gen.

Personally, I think Nintendo wants their system to work smarter not harder.

[JokerFock]

pcper....they unsure about everything @18.30

[DeadPixel]

Regardless of this article, I've seen the comparison videos and the Wii u is clearly graphically better than ps360, the only people hating are the ones that were never gonna buy one anyway...

[RFornillos4]

the fact is, Nintendo did not sought out to compete with the PC, otherwise they'd be at the losing end (much like PS3 and Xbox360). Nintendo never claimed their machine would ultra-powerful in terms of graphics, apart from mentioning that it is now in HD.

what Nintendo did though was to create an efficient machine. a lot of times people boast about how powerful their machines are, but using only about half its capability. then seeing this info about Wii U, stating that, oh it's a 7 year old technology or my laptop runs faster than this. don't underestimate what the japanese people can do with their machines, nor their understanding of computers. Nintendo sought out to create an efficient machine, that although specs indicate a probable disparity to what it can offer, may even prove more efficient and capable of doing more, than your more powerful laptop/PC. don't get me wrong, if these specs are true, even I can say my laptop is more powerful than this, and this not being a dedicated gaming machine (RAM alone is already 6GB, not too high for gaming but good enough).

Nintendo hasn't been about graphics power since the Wii, and trend continues to the Wii U. i have always believed that utilizing the capability of the console would always fall on devs making games for it. if you're careless, then you'll be creating programs that is poor in memory management or worse. but when you're good, you can offer beyond what the machine can do. gameplay will always outshine graphics. Nintendo has proven they can do both even with meager graphics capabilities, otherwise some of the top bestselling games wouldn't come from Nintendo. with HD capabilities, they can expand their market to core gamers, the true core gamers not fanboys.

[Rageanitus]

I would have to disagree with you... how do know the machine is efficient... in terms of raw horse power its is similar to the ps3 and xbox... and in the developers pount of view they have to learn to code in a new way somewhat. I don;t expect that much of a drastic improvement in terms of graphcical output in the coming years from the wii U

[RFornillos4]

how do you know it's not efficient?

the fact is, only time will tell. but Nintendo Direct's discussion on how the machine was built already show they were aiming for efficiency when the created Wii U.

like i said, Nintendo hasn't been about graphics power since the Wii, and still the same for the Wii U; this will eventually boil down to how the devs will use that raw power. which is what happened to the PS3 and XBox360, initial games didn't look that good, but now you have Uncharted and Halo 4, the likes.

if you go back to an article, it was mentioned that Toki Tori devs discovered some hidden capability of the Wii U, which if used would extend the machines capabilities. so really my point is, you can't judge a console simply because some people see this chips and that on the Wii U mainboard, without proper benchmarking test.

[Rageanitus]

This system is truly next gen for a Nintendo Product..... just like how Apple advertises their products.

[emk2004]

Im not a tech genius and maybe my math doesn't apply correctly but even if you have slower ram, you have quadruple the amount at 17GB/s and 360 is 22.4 GB/s and ps3 25.6 GB/s main memory BW + 22.4 GB/s graphics memory BW, no eDRAM .

Wouldnt that mean 17gb/s * 4 = 68 gb/s.

[T900]

Thats not how hardware works. If the ram has 17GB/s bandwidth, then it applies to all the ram. Hence in the end it is just 17GB/s for that 2gigs of ram.

[RavageX]

Who the hell cares?

A system could be the most powerful thing on the market, have freakin' self aware AI but if the games suck what good is it?

Games make the system people. Games that are fun and entertaining are what matters, not how many teraflops or gigwads a cpu clocks at or whatever.

I'm not even interested in the Wii, but am sick of the general BS from gamers going back and forth on issues like this.

And why are PC gamers showing up so much around here?? Wouldn't matter except so many of you feel the need to talk about superior graphics all day long.

Don't care, go away. Talk about the actual games instead of boasting about your $1000 graphics card.

[Main_Street_Saint]

At last, sanity makes a comeback!

[RevXM]

Well I sense you arent into spec and performance and that is fine, but it is important. It can become a little too much with some comments on here being kind of rude or immature at times but overall I enjoy skimming through other peoples point of view and discuss a little. Just try ignore the most immature posts.

Granted a system with all the power in the world can have the one most suckiest game of all time, but it is the power that makes the dreams and visions possible. Pushing power and technology results in evolution, and in most or all respects games are getting better. but one bad game or two doesnt outweigh all the good ones on any system, just dont buy shitty games.

I still enjoy Superfrog, lemmings, syndicate, unreal, MGS1 and other old games like most people do. But with time games have become richer and more immersive. A lot of fun games today wouldnt be the same if possible at all 5 or 10 years ago and consoles are also going beyond games now.
Entertainment and allround capabilities have become more natural and important with the 7th gen systems and I cant imagine 8th gen without them.

Well have a nice day onwards RavageX.

[profgerbik]

Thing is the N64 was 64 bit and the PS1 was only 32bit yet they still managed to out perform every aspect of the N64.

I have a feeling the same will happen here, some how Nintendo systems are never utilized well.

Also how stupid is that the proof am I the only person who knows that Batman was actually redeveloped for the Wii U, of course the newer version of that port is going to look better, if they released it on the PS3 or 360 it would look the same as well.

Just a really stupid comparison to use a port that was redeveloped for the system, of course they will add more detail and features..

You aren't fooling me though with that nonsense.

[swice]

Quoting 'sitharrefus':

"But your forgetting that Nintendo asked developers what they wanted for specs and they were pleased with the WiiU and they showed that at E3."

I think this is the proper step. Do what the developers want for a while.

Consoles have always been expensive, but I miss the days when the games highest price was only $20-40 for a NEW release. Production of games today has become so reliant on the newest tech, which we pay for. $60 freaking dollars for a new game. And what, next gen will be $70?

I would like to see the industry slow down and catch up with itself, so that we might be able to afford gaming again, and to allow developers proper time to learn the tech BEFORE putting it on the market, which would lead to better games right at console launch.

Basically what I'm saying is, if the industry slows down, then we could possibly have the same high quality games that show up at the end of a consoles life in the beginning instead, for a cheaper price.

Obviously this rant has holes in it, but does anyone see where I'm coming from here?

[Main_Street_Saint]

I remember when Street Fighter II came out on the Super NES for about $60.

[Amiroo]

NeoGaf Thread updated
it's not 17gb/s it's 12.8gb/s

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[spinbot_lv1]

oh god! is slower than expected. looks like a jalopy car in console segment

[AsimLeonheart]

Nintendo fans must be dumbstruck and heartbroken as they come back to reality. LOL!

[Main_Street_Saint]

In the end, I really don't know much about computer specs past the more obvious stuff. I guess its because I'm from an era where we didn't get into the specific specifications of the console hardware (past the whole bit (8, 16, 32) thing). Seems now a days, console owners are computer experts.

[LKHGFDSA]

for a second I thought this post was about it getting hacked.
I still hope that happens.

[NeoTribe]

Its a child oriented console. Wtf do people expect? Parents don't care about graphics and memory speed. Long as mario can collect them coins at 60fps its all gravy.